The Nightly Prayer Implementation
by xLostInTheSun
Summary: December 2013. Sheldon just became an uncle and is spending Christmas eve with his family. But a cute bespectacled neuroscientist's name is on everyone's lips. - set during episode 07x11 and containing a very minor spoiler for 09x01


**A/N:** It's been a while. Just trying to mend my Shamy heart with some fluff.

* * *

"I'll let you go back to your family. I'm sure they're waiting for you, wondering where you are," Amy said, her sweet smile bigger than ever, as if she _knew_ something and he didn't, and Sheldon wanted to ask her to stay on Skype a bit longer, because he really did miss her – not that he'd ever admit it in _those_ terms – but she had a point.

His mother would never forgive him if he missed the Christmas Eve mass, and even if it had been an evening in the scorching hot month of June rather than in the freezing cold of December, his twin sister did just have a baby, and it was expected of the little brat's uncle to coo over him. Besides, as Amy had pointed out the day before, he could be a role model for this kid. And, well, given his other uncle's lack of intelligence, Sheldon was definitely the baby's best bet.

"Fine," Sheldon said. "I'll see you in two days, then?" he added, just to make sure.

"Yes," she answered. "I'll come pick you up from the airport. See you soon, Sheldon."

Before he had had time to reply, Amy hung up their Skype call, and Sheldon was now staring at the software's interface. Sighing, he turned off his iPad and put it away in his suitcase – he wouldn't be needing it if Amy wasn't going to be calling him tomorrow because she was going to be visiting her family in Orange County for Christmas.

After dusting imaginary dirt off his suit and making sure his dress shoes were properly tied, Sheldon exited his old childhood bedroom and walked down the stairs to find his whole family waiting for him in the living room, dressed up for church. George Jr and his girlfriend-of-the-month were kissing under Meemaw's disapproving stare and his mother was looking at her wristwatch, seemingly annoyed. Even Missy, her husband, and her newborn were there, for his mother would never have let them miss this mass. Mary Cooper didn't care if you'd been in a motorcycle accident and were wearing a cast or had _literally_ just given birth the day before – not going to the Christmas Eve mass was a sin, and their would be no sinners under her roof (well, except for George Jr and his collection of whores, but that ship had sunk a long time ago, and she had learnt to let it go.)

"Finally!" Mary cried as she heard the floor crack under Sheldon's foot and looked up. She walked towards him in two steps, and then she took him by the end, yanking him forward and through the open door. "I thought we were going to miss it because of you!"

"Mother!" Sheldon cried, the cold Texan night biting his face as soon as he stepped foot outside. "I don't have my coat on!"

"The Lord don't care, and neither do I!" she replied as their whole family followed them for the short walk down to the church. "Next time you wanna have time to get dressed appropriately for a winter night, don't be sweet talkin' on the phone with ladies for so long!"

Sheldon groaned. "I wasn't sweet talking with ladies, Mother. I was talking with my long time girlfriend."

"Which is about the only reason she didn't interrupt that call," George Jr. remarked, having detached his lips from his girlfriend... was it Sally? Or Molly? Maybe Lily? Didn't matter anyway, he would have a new one next time Sheldon visited. "Lemme tell you that had I been the one making everyone wait 'cause I was sexing up my girlfriend, I'd have had my ass handed to me."

Sheldon blushed furiously at Junior's remark. He wanted to reply that he wasn't "sexing up" Amy, but that would probably only lead Missy to mock him, and, well, let's just say he didn't care very much for that.

"Everyone shush down," Meemaw said, pushing Missy's baby's pram. "This ain't no way to talk on Christmas Eve."

While not as religious as Sheldon's zealous mother, Meemaw definitely thought the Messiah's night of birth deserved some respect, and there were just some topics that were not appropriate to discuss on Christmas Eve.

Thankfully, the neighbourhood church was finally in sight, and soon everyone would shut up, and then it was just going to be the longest four hours of the year for Sheldon.

* * *

Later that night, after Missy, her husband, and their child had retired to their own room for the night (not without any difficulty, as walking up stairs in a cast wasn't the easiest feat), after Meemaw had gone into the kitchen to bake her famous Christmas cookies ("Are you really going to bake after midnight?" Mary had asked, and Meemaw had replied "Of course! Anything for my Moon Pie!"), and after Junior and his girlfriend had gone off to her place to have loud, unmarried sex (something that Mary Cooper would never have allowed under her roof), Sheldon found himself sitting on the couch with his mother.

"You see, it wasn't that bad," she said of the Christmas Eve mass.

"You say that every year, and every year I give you the same answer," Sheldon pointed out. "Yes, it was that bad."

Mary smiled, and conspiratingly leaned in. "Well, y'know, I bed God would forgive you if you chose to spend Christmas Eve with that girlfriend of yours next year instead of coming to mass with us."

Sheldon blinked several times, not sure of what he'd just heard. "Did you just say I can skip mass if I stay in California with Amy?" he asked.

"I didn't say that, Sheldon," Mary replied, frowning. "No one said anything about missing mass at all. I meant you can go to mass in California with Amy rather than flying all the way here."

Sheldon smiled. "Sure, Mom. I'll be going with Amy." Ah! What a fool! Like he'd be going to mass if he could avoid it. Ah! He'd just been given a free pass to stay home and play video games on Christmas Eve, and boy was he going to use it. What Mary Cooper didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"What's going on with you two anyway?" she asked. "We all met her on Skype already, but when are you flying her to Texas for us?"

Oh boy. Was this going to be another one of _those_ talks? Sheldon had heard enough of them.

"Amy's very busy with work, Mom. I can't just ask her to drop everything just because y'all think that Skype isn't good enough to get to know my girlfriend."

Mary sighed, then, putting on her serious face, and Sheldon was taken almost two decades back in time.

"Shelly," she said, "introducing your significant other to your family – and I mean _really_ introducing, in the flesh, not over the phone or over a computer – is a big step in any relationship. The fact that I'm the only one who ever properly met Amy – and that's only because I flew to California – makes it seem as though you're not committed to this woman."

Sheldon groaned. He'd heard enough of that from Penny and Leonard! Why was everyone always questioning his relationship with Amy? He'd only been with her for two years, now (three, if you counted the year before he officially asked her out as part of their relationship, which they had retro-actively agreed it was, but still, three years wasn't much longer than two), they had kissed twice, and they had even had Dungeons and Dragons intercourse a few months before – if that many things in such a short time frame wasn't commitment, he wasn't sure what was.

As far as he knew, Amy was happy with the way things were going. Of course she'd hinted at wanting more "romance," but did she really want that, or did she think she did because that was what her girl friends were getting from their own significant others? As for _physical_ intimacy... Sheldon knew she wanted it, but ever since he'd had had his way with her in a make believe game, Amy had dropped any hint at it. Maybe she'd been satisfied for a lifetime by his skilled lovemaking that day. That kind of bothered him a little, actually, but he wasn't willing to dwell on what _that_ meant. Like, at all.

"You two been together a long time," Mary added, "and I wonder what your intentions are." She seemed to hesitate, then, as if not sure if she should just flat out ask what she wanted to know. She took a deep breath, maybe thinking that it was Christmas and she could maybe hope for a miracle. "Do you plan on being with Amy forever, or is she just some kinda stepping stone, your first adult relationship before moving on to The One?"

Sheldon stared at his mother, then, shocked by her bold questions. He didn't think he'd be with Amy _forever_. Forever was a long time, and, besides, neither of them were going to live _forever_. Unfortunately, immortality was still reserved to starfish, and one day, he was going to die, and then Amy would die too (boy, he really hoped he would die first.) Neither of them believed in an afterlife, but if they did, he guessed that, yes, maybe they'd still be together then. Amy definitely wasn't his relationship training wheels, and he honestly found it offensive that his mother would think him capable of treating her like this. Sure, he wasn't showing it to everyone who cared to listen, because his relationship only had two people in and everyone else's opinions were irrelevant, but he _was_ committed to Amy. He was more committed to her than he'd ever been to _anybody_ , and God knew how binding the Roommate Agreement he and Leonard had signed was.

Truth be told, Amy completed him in a way he had never thought was possible. He'd been very happy on his own before, but she had come into his life, and now he didn't think he'd ever let her walk out of it. Not that she'd ever want to – she was crazy about him, that much he knew. He didn't know if it was _love,_ like the one that made Leonard smile as Penny walked all over him, or like the one that made Howard stop being a disgusting pervert when he met Bernadette, but he suspected it was. There was no way she would accept to sit through eleven hours of _The Lord of the Rings_ if she didn't love him – it wasn't even in the Relationship Agreement!

As for him... did he love her? Perhaps. He still hadn't ruled out the brain parasite hypothesis, and he still thought it deserved a fair examination, but truth be told, love was probably the most logical explanation for a lot of the nonsensical things he'd been doing ever since he'd met her. And the thought wasn't as scary as he thought. As long as everything else stayed the way it had always been, being in love with Amy was a change he could deal with, because... well, it did make life brighter. Just catching sight of her goofy smile on his screensaver was enough to make his day a little bit better. Not that he'd ever tell her that. Amy didn't even know she was on his screensaver. It was better that way. She already had enough power over him as it was.

"Mother," Sheldon finally answered, his voice as outraged as his thoughts. "I cannot believe you would think me capable of doing such a thing. You've seen me adopt twenty five cats because I was pining after Amy. This should be enough for you."

Mary looked at him silently for a while, her face unreadable, and then she smiled. "Of course, honey. Of course it is."

Sheldon gave a curt nod, and got up. "I'm gonna go help Meemaw with the cookies," he said, and Mary nodded too, but not without catching her hand in his.

"Before you go," she said, "I thought we could pray together."

Sheldon almost protested, but he knew that there was no way he could ever get out of praying on Christmas Eve. "Fine," he replied"Let's get this over with." Not caring about the dark look his mother shot him, Sheldon he sat back down next to her, his hand still in hers, and waited for her to start.

"Before we start," she said, "is there anyone you'd like to include in our prayer?"

He had never believed that prayers had any influence whatsoever on anyone's lives, and there was no way he would ever change his mind. They could be praying for the worst dictator in the world to get even more power, and it still wouldn't do anything, because prayers just didn't work. Which is why it came as a surprise to both him and his mother when he said "Maybe we could pray for Amy."

Mary looked at him with a knowing smile, her eyes sparkling, and after a few seconds, she said "Sure, sweetheart, sure we can," and so they prayed.

Later, as Sheldon had a hand on the kitchen door handle, Mary called behind him one last time. "Shelly," she said, "I think I'll be including Amy in my nightly prayers from now on."

Sheldon turned around, smiling in spite of himself. "Thank you, Mom" he said, any saracastic reply he might have had about how he didn't care never finding its way into his mouth, simply because it wasn't true that he did not care. And then he pushed the door, for he had some delicious cookie baking/eating to do.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you for reading! Review pretty please with a cherry on top?


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